Friday, October 2, 2009

What I think: Roman Polanski

I think that everyone else might be sort of over this story, but I've been thinking a lot this week about Roman Polanski. Mr. Polanski is a famous and talented filmmaker. He has a tragic personal story - his parents were killed in the Holocaust and his pregnant wife was murdered.

Everyone knows by now that he was arrested this week in Switzerland for "having sex" with a 13 year old girl 30 years ago. After pleading guilty he fled the country and has lived in France ever since.

Many people, including a lot of famous Hollywood ones think that this is a politically motivated arrest - ridiculous after so many years. CNN keeps playing a clip of a French guy claiming that by asking Switzerland to arrest Polanski we're seeing the "scary America."

I managed to work myself up into an outrage about this case earlier. People: He. Raped. A. Child. He brought a 13 year old girl to his house, took naked pictures of her, gave her alcohol and drugs, and even after she repeatedly said no and asked if she could go home, raped her. What made me much, much angrier was reading this child's testimony before the grand jury. I'll spare you the sordid details, but if you're interested, you can find it here. The fact that he's famous, the fact that his life hasn't been easy, and even the fact that it took place a long time ago shouldn't matter here.

Where does France get off criticizing the U.S. (and Switzerland) for trying to bring this man to justice? Do they have a "oh, you Americans and your prudish sexual hang-ups" perspective on the situation? Is raping children okay in France? Maybe it's just okay for famous people? Rape is a crime. A very serious crime. And if you plead guilty to a crime, you should be punished for it. The fact that it happened 30 plus years ago is irrelevant. In fact, it's only because the man ran away from his punishment (a fact that shouldn't get him off any easier) that the situation hasn't been dealt with by now.

So, my official opinion then: Raping children is wrong. So is running away after you're caught. Hollywood, France, and anyone else who thinks that the U.S. is overreacting to case must disagree with me, because it's hard for me to figure out why you'd support Polanski otherwise.

6 comments:

Reforming Soccer Mom said...

I really like your poll, Emily.

Anonymous said...

Hear Hear!!! Well said.

anaeromyxo said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/movies/01pola.html?ex=1270008000&en=22cf1a4707aae6e7&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=MO-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M117-ROS-1009-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click

Um...you can take comfort in the box office rejection...

biophd said...

I also enjoyed reading this article, which states, essentially, that in France famous people are allowed to rape children. Or actually, murder wives and girlfriends.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/weekinreview/04kimmelman.html

Jan said...

For me it is interesting that his original sentence was only 48 days of jail. It is interesting for a country that made (and makes) use of death sentences...
America seemed to be very liberal or inconsequent or somehow used to it in the 70's.

citing NYT ;)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/movies/11polanski.html

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear some sanity on an insane and sad subject. I have always rejected any movies done by this person. Thanks for your blog!